It Started With a Mission
by katale
Summary: He didn't know why he always watched her out of the corner of his eye but he would be damned if he didn't find out. So he invited her to go on a mission with him. One that would bring fights, problems, lightning storms and quirky spirits, questions, and hopefully answers to those questions. Mainly Lalu slightly OOC rated T because swear words and my paranoia. Sorry about bad title.
1. The Beginning

**This is my first story (hopefully of many to come) to upload on this website. I hope you enjoy it, and please do tell me if there are any mistakes or if I got something wrong or if the characters are OOC. I will fix anything if necessary.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of the characters and sadly, I probably never will.**

 **So, with no further ado, here is Chapter 1.**

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Chapter 1 - The Beginning

Laxus growled under his breath from the second floor of the guild. The object of his frustration sat at the bar almost directly underneath him, giggling behind her hand at something that her pink-haired partner said. He was sat at his usual bench on the balcony, over watching his guild mates and it was only a matter of time before his focus was inevitably drawn towards the blonde Celestial Spirit Mage. Deny it all he might, Laxus found that he observed Lucy quite often, the majority of the time without even realising it too.

Another quiet growl ripped out of his throat before he had time to stop it, his annoyance brought forward from that goddamn Salamander's close proximity to his partner. Laxus glared from above, his stare so strong that Lucy started looking around, searching for the direction that it came from. When her eyes finally looked up and settled on him, the surprise was clear on her face that he didn't even attempt to hide his scowl, confirming her suspicions that the stare came from him. She hesitantly raised a hand in a half-hearted wave in hope that it would distinguish the dark look on his face. The generally grumpy Dragon Slayer let go of the scowl completely, giving Lucy a tiny quirk of his lips, something she would have missed had she not been looking for it.

Satisfied, Lucy turned her attention back to Natsu, tuning back into whatever nonsense her immature partner was spouting.

Laxus pushed himself onto his feet from where he sat, waving a hand back to the Raijinshuu, receiving the usual replies back ("Bye Laxus-sama~!" "See ya Laxus!" "Bye Laxus!"). He walked down the stairs to the first story, flashing a smirk at Lucy when she looked at him in curiosity and continued on his way out of the guild.

On his way home, Laxus found himself thinking of the way Lucy looked at him. Laxus wasn't stupid, he knew how the other guild members were still slightly wary of him and the Raijinshuu, that they stole glances at them from time to time to make sure that they weren't going to suddenly attack the guild again. The fact that most people avoided looking directly into his eyes wasn't lost on him. And when they did look at him, their guards was up and they tried not to show their emotions. The only people that looked at him openly was his grandfather, the Raijinshuu and Natsu.

What surprised Laxus was that none of the usual things were present when Lucy looked up at him. She looked directly into his eyes, searching for a sign of what he felt, with not even a drop of fear or trepidation in her. Fuck, it made him feel guilty. After all, he refused to help fight off Phantom Lord unless she became his girl, made Evergreen turn her into stone, proceeded to make her fight the other guild members and then fought her best friend, all while turning the whole of Fairy Tail against each other. Lucy had all the rights to be afraid of him and yet, she looked at him like the past never happened and she trusted him with her life.

While Laxus was so lost in his thoughts, he didn't realise that he had accidentally ended up in front of the house belonging to the girl he was thinking about. The fact that Lucy lived in the two-story apartment he was in front of was undeniable, based on the scent of Team Natsu that was practically overflowing out of the open windows. Another growl, similar to the ones he let out back at the guild, spilled out of his mouth when he came to the realisation that while Lucy's smell of strawberries and coconut was the strongest, the smell of ash and spices was a close second – _Natsu's_ scent.

Driven by his instincts and annoyance, Laxus jumped up to one of the open windows, making a clean leap and landed on the bed underneath said window.

When he opened his eyes after taking a long whiff of Lucy's intoxicating (not that he'd ever admit it) scent, his sight was practically bombarded with the colour pink. Pink bedspread, pink walls, pink curtains and pink knick-knacks on her bookshelf. Shaking off the shock of the overpowering _pinkness_ , the Dragon Slayer headed to the kitchen, hoping to find some food to ease the hunger he felt.

* * *

Back at the guild, Lucy was left to wonder what put Laxus in such a mood, glaring down at her and Natsu. Natsu's rambling about his excitement for their next mission faded into background noise when her mind conjured up the image of Laxus' scowl, the slight down turn of his lips, the furrow of his brow, the annoyance that she could see in his eyes even from such a distance. She racked her brain, trying to figure out why it seemed that the reason for his annoyance was her or her partner, coming up with nothing.

Realising at last that his blonde beauty of a partner wasn't paying attention to him, Natsu interrupted her train of thought.

"Luce? You ok?" he asked in concern, it wasn't often that she ignored him so blatantly.

"Hm?" she replied distractedly.

Natsu touched her shoulder lightly, in an effort to bring her attention back to him. Lucy blinked a couple of times and shook her head once before turning her head to Natsu.

"Sorry Natsu. What were you saying?"

"You ok Lucy?" he said instead, ignoring her question.

"Yeah, just a bit distracted. I might go home early today actually." Regardless of the supposedly reassuring statement, the worry didn't leave Natsu. Upon seeing the boy's doubt, Lucy gave him a little smile, a small gesture to put his worries to rest.

Although not entirely convinced, he pushed the worry to the back of his mind to think about later, opting to just adopt his usual carefree, face-splitting grin instead.

Having soothed her partner's unease, Lucy got up from her stool at the bar, left Natsu with a "See you tomorrow" and walked out of the guild.

Once outside of the guild, the Celestial Mage summoned her trusty Nikola spirit and set off on her way home.

"Ne Plue, do you know why Laxus was staring down at me and Natsu?" she asked the shivering white dog (snowman?).

"Puu-puuun" was the only response the blonde got although she nodded along to the noises the little spirit made, as if she understood.

"Yeah, I have no idea either." Lucy replied.

The rest of the trip back to her apartment was spent in silence after both spirit and mage hopped onto the river ledge to balance like always. Lucy waved off warnings from passing boaters about being careful, while teetering dangerously close to the edge of the canal, only hopping off when she came to a stop in front of her apartment building.

Lucy walked up to her front door, unlocked it and walked in, letting Plue return to the Celestial Spirit World once she was inside. Fighting off a yawn, she walked into the kitchen where she opened the fridge, grumbling when she realised that she had next to no food in her house.

It was when she was making a mental list of the things she would need to buy the next time she went shopping (probably tomorrow, seeing as she would need to eat) that she finally realised that something was wrong. The memory of checking her fridge for food just this morning popped into her mind, her previously full fridge. The blonde starting checking off people that couldn't have done it. Natsu, since he was with her for the whole day since she got to the guild. Gray, Erza and Wendy, since they usually didn't break into her house unless Natsu was with them and he was already out. Happy, since he wouldn't have been able to eat a whole fridge worth of food. It occurred to Lucy that other than those four people and one cat, she couldn't name any other people who could've done it.

Shaking off the weird feeling and suspicion, she finally let a yawn loose, accepting that it was probably time to go to sleep. With that in mind, she changed into her pyjamas (being shorts and a tank-top), brushed her teeth and her hair and turned off the lights in her bathroom.

Lucy walked into her bedroom and was about to turn off the lights when she took a double take.

There, in her bed was a lump, a _human_ sized lump. What made her so confused was that it wasn't the usual sized lump that Natsu made when he slept in her bed. Nor was there a bunch of pink hair poking out from underneath the blanket. Instead, it was _blonde_.

Reigning in her urge to scream and deliver a Lucy Kick to whoever decided to take a nap in her bed, the girl decided to go about this rationally and try to figure out who the hell it was that was in her house.

The size of the lump told her that it was a male, as she currently knew no female big enough to create that sized bulge in her bed. The blonde tuft of hair however, led Lucy to believe that it was either someone from another guild or a stranger who wandered into her house somehow. After all, she refused to believe that the blonde hair poking out the top of her blanket was _Laxus_ of all people. Maybe Natsu dyed his hair blonde in the past hour since she had seen him.

Dismissing the very idea, Lucy pulled the covers of her blanket off of the mystery person in a determined manner.

Even though the thought flashed through her head, nothing had prepared her to see the Lightning Dragon Slayer laying in front of her, his fingers twitching in an unconscious effort to get his warm blanket back. Regardless of the denial she felt, the man in her bed was most definitely Laxus Dreyar, from the soft looking blonde hair that she saw earlier, to the lightning shaped scar on his eye that Lucy just wanted to trace all day if she could, from the sharp angled jaw of his to the irresistible smirk that was for once not there and replaced by a gentle smile. And Holy Mavis was the man attractive when he wasn't scowling (not that he wasn't attractive when he did scowl, if anything he looked hot while scowling or smirking but kind of cute when he had that smile).

Determined to put the thoughts of the man's attractiveness to the back of her mind where they would never see the light of day, Lucy jerked when she felt those same eyes that she felt back at the guild on her person again. Slowly, she turned her head back towards the bed, her large brown eyes meeting sharp blue ones.

After a moment, she poked the man currently residing in her bed, still almost disbelieving that he was actually there, causing a look of confusion to cross over Laxus' face.

"Did you just _poke_ me?" he asked, breaking the long silence after a minute. Lucy let out a small shriek and delivered a Lucy Kick to the man, finally realising that he was real and actually lying in her bed.

"Fuck Blondie. Was that really necessary?" Lucy winced and then gasped as she realised what she had done a second ago.

Running over to where she had kicked Laxus to, she ran her hands over his arms to check for any injuries she may have caused him. Laxus grabbed her hands, halting her from touching him any further.

"Blondie, relax. I'm fine, no harm done. See?" he gestured towards his body, an action that drew Lucy's eyes back to his form, her hands still firmly in his grasp.

Finally seeing that he was telling the truth, Lucy redirected her sight back to his eyes, not without lingering a bit on the lightly tanned skin of his, only now realising that he had shed his shirt sometime before she found him.

"Fine. What are you doing here anyways, Laxus?" she asked, not even bothering to argue about the nickname he had given her, knowing from what she had previously seen that he would never give up on calling her that. She really was curious about why he was in her house. As far as she knew, he had never been there before and there was no particular reason why he should have been today.

He paused at that, not really having a valid answer to her question. After all, he had jumped through her window on impulse. The rest of it though, the raiding of her fridge and climbing into her bed was more of a 'now that I'm here, might as well make the most of it' kinda thing. And boy, was Natsu right. Lucy's bed was the best he had ever slept in, lulling him to sleep not even a minute after he lay down.

Racking his brain for a good reason for breaking into the woman's house, a light bulb practically lit up above his blonde head.

"There was a mission on the request board that caught my eye and you're coming with me." It wasn't really a lie, he really had seen a mission that looked like it would interest the blonde Celestial Mage. The only thing that made his statement slightly untrue was that he hadn't planned on inviting her to actually go on the mission nor was he even thinking of going on it when he saw the sheet of paper.

Regardless of the fact that Laxus had phrased the 'invitation' as a statement rather than a question, Lucy knew that she still had a choice in the matter.

She felt hesitant in accepting the offer. After all, it wasn't just an invitation to working together, it was an invitation to spend one-on-one time with the man for however long the mission would take. The hesitation however, faded instantly the moment that she looked at the large Dragon Slayer sprawled on the floor. There was a hint of hope and fear that she could see in his normally apathetic eyes and that was the only thing that she needed in order to shake off the doubt she felt and accept his offer.

"Sure, I'll go with you. What's the mission about though and how long will it take?" she watched as the fear disappeared and was replaced with joy, still subtle but detectable nonetheless.

Laxus was doing a mini happy dance in his mind, not paying much attention to his surroundings any more now that Lucy had said yes. After a few seconds, he finally realised that she asked him a question and froze in his spot, cursing quietly.

"What would you do if I said that I can't actually remember what the mission was…?" he reached up to scratch his head, his expression something akin to sheepishness. He was expecting the young woman to react negatively, let out the dark side of her moods that he had heard so much about (and was not scared of seeing, dammit), change her mind about the mission and reject it, hell even kick him out of her house (literally). The sudden burst of giggles out of the girl was not in any way what he had expected, as evident by his expression.

"S-sorry Laxus. Y-your face t-though!" the giggles that were still erupting from Lucy made the apology seem less genuine, although it helped a bit to sooth Laxus' damaged ego at being laughed at.

By the time that she calmed down, she was panting and red in the face, with Laxus sitting in front of her almost pouting.

"Sorry, sorry. Ano~… How about we meet up at the guild tomorrow and see what the mission is then go back home, pack and meet again at the train station?" Lucy asked shyly, not looking directly at the man any more, feeling a little guilty for laughing so much now.

She felt a large hand settle on her head, causing her to look up in surprise to see a surprisingly gentle smile on his face, not the small quirk of his lips like before but a real and proper smile. It shocked her a lot but she instantly gave a bright smile back in return.

"That sounds great, Blondie. I'll see you tomorrow then." Laxus got to his feet and pulled his shirt over his head in one swift motion, leaving Lucy to gawk at the memory of his chest and muscles rippling (and there was a _lot_ of muscles). He smirked at her blank face before moving towards the bed, threw a quick "See ya!" over his shoulder and jumped out the still open window.

After a moment, Lucy ran to lean over her bed and popped her head out.

"Why can't anyone just use a door for once?!"

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 **Hope you enjoyed it and it wasn't too short (over 2,000 words isn't too bad for a first time though, right?) Again, sorry if there were any typos or mistakes of any sort. Do review or contact me in some way to tell me if you find any though. Review or don't, Favourite or not, Follow or not, I don't mind but thank you for taking the time to read my story and hopefully you'll keep reading.**

 **Sadly, I'm a lazy little shit though and I have school and all this other stuff going on so I have no idea when I'll next be able to upload so I apologise in advance.**


	2. Natsu and Travel Sickness

**Hi again. I know it's been nearly a month, I technically did say that I probably wouldn't be uploading for a while. I'm surprised I got this chapter up before a month was up.**

 **I'm not sure if this is still necessary but I'll still put it at the beginning of each chapter anyway.**

 **Disclaimer: I still don't own Fairy Tail which is good because if I did, it would probably be shit since I have next to no imagination.**

Chapter 2 – Natsu and Travel Sickness

Following the plans to meet up at the guild in the morning, Lucy had just walked up to the closed doors of the guild when she heard an enraged voice and silence. There was none of the normal drunken laughter (ignoring the fact that it was hardly an appropriate time to be drinking), tell-tale sounds of fights and loud voices. This alone was enough to fuel her worries and prompt her to push open the heavy doors quickly to size up the potentially dangerous situation.

At the sound of the large doors creaking open and footsteps from the entrance of the guild, multiple eyes turned to Lucy, widening as they saw her. The only few eyes that didn't stray from the middle of the hall were those of the ones causing the commotion. In the middle of the silent nameless and not so nameless bodies were Gray and Erza holding back an angry Natsu, with Laxus staring back almost lazily at said angry boy in amusement.

Natsu's eyes finally shifted away from Laxus' when he caught the scent of his partner, wriggling out of the holds of Erza and Gray to run over to her.

"Luce! You're not _actually_ going on a mission with Laxus are you?" Lucy struggled to answer his question, the almost hurt expression on his face making her hesitate and almost deny it.

"Y-yes Natsu. I am." She stuttered, practically having to spit the words out. The sudden anger mixed with sadness that showed on his face surprised her and she jumped, startled when he let out a shout and leaped over to Laxus, fist aflame as he did so.

It was obvious that Laxus was expecting Natsu's reaction as he was already in a fighting stance, his own magic at the ready. As soon as the furious pinkette was in reach, a large muscular arm swung down and squashed him under its weight. Many eyes, including those of Lucy's snapped to Laxus then to the bar when they saw the same startled and confused expression on his face as others had. The blonde Celestial Mage traced the gigantic arm back to the small but undeniably powerful body of Fairy Tail's Master.

"Team Natsu, you will allow Lucy to go on a mission with Laxus and that is final. There is no doubt that she has chosen to do this of her own will and if I am to find out that any of you brats have tried to stop her or follow Laxus and Lucy, you will be punished." Makarov boomed, ignoring the fact that Natsu was still squashed under his hand and couldn't hear his instructions. He was confident that either Erza or Gray would inform the boy of the conditions once he regained consciousness.

"Master?" Lucy questioned quietly, the confusion she felt was evident in her voice.

"Lucy, my child. How are you today?" he cheerfully asked, a smile spread across his face like the last 5 minutes never happened.

"Uhhh, I'm good. How are you Master?"

"I'm great. You and Laxus are going on a mission together and that means I'm getting _great-grandchildren_ soon!" the smile on his face morphed into a lecherous grin and he seemed to go off into his own wonderland, filled with millions of little children and babies with blonde hair and blue or doe brown eyes.

A squeal was heard from the other side of the bar and Lucy didn't even need to look over to know that it came from Mira.

The noise from behind her told her that the rest of the guild was starting to go back to their own activities from before the fuss started and Lucy sighed. It was relieving to know that her family was concerned about what happened in her life though. Well, either that or they were just hungry for some drama.

Laxus came up behind his fellow blonde. "I already grabbed the mission and reported it into Mira, I'll explain it on the way. Now let's go before gramps snaps out of his daydream and we miss the train."

Acknowledging and agreeing with his words, Lucy followed the hulk of a mage out of the guild and to the train station.

When Laxus handed her the mission paper, she noticed that he was looking straight forward, his expression almost blank like it usually was when surrounded by their guild mates. His face was a lot more relaxed and it was easier for her to read his emotions though. The thought of how he acted during Fantasia floated to the front of her mind and she adopted a slight frown, the memory leaving a bad taste in her mouth like it did when she thought of other past fights. She realised however, the difference in the way he acted now, the air of arrogance he had before still there but dulled down.

Lucy shook her head and accepted the mission sheet, ignoring the questioning look on Laxus' face.

It seemed like a fairly simple mission. Go to Shirotsume Town and defeat a bunch of Wyvern in the woods behind the city, and it was 150,000 jewels! Enough to pay off her month's rent even if they split the money evenly. Although if there was one thing that Lucy learnt while going on missions with Team Natsu, it was that there was always something that can go wrong. In the past, no matter who she was with, something happened. _Every. Single. Time._

Still, it was the type of mission that Team Natsu would usually go on and that put her slightly at ease.

She refused to let her thoughts linger and focused on the task at hand, getting to the train station. Handing the paper back to Laxus, Lucy decided to call out Plue, letting out a soft smile when her eyes landed on the small, shivering figure. She scooped the spirit up into her arms while talking quietly to him, pulling a lollipop from her pocket which she then handed it to him.

* * *

Laxus' sight flickered to the girl beside him, giggling cutely at her little friend (thing) in her arms. The almost constant smirk on his face faded into something less and his eyes softened slightly, the change in his expression undetected by any watching passers-by and Lucy. So much time passed that by the time Laxus realised he was staring at her, the whole trip to the train station had passed and he was looking at the building, starting to regret picking a mission that required them to leave Magnolia.

When he felt a pair of eyes drilling a hole in his side, his eyesight flicked back to the blonde next to him and he kept walking, figuring that she had realised he was just standing there for the past minute. He refused to acknowledge the curious expression on her face when she no doubt saw the blood drain from his, knowing that she would be able to determine the reason for his reluctance to catch a train soon enough.

The pair bought their tickets and boarded the train, entering an empty booth and sitting on opposite sides, Lucy eager to get to Shirotsume Town and Laxus dreading the moment the train started moving.

Laxus noticed that the small snowman (no way was that thing a dog) was no longer in his temporary partner's arms and felt relieved for a moment, until he felt the train lurch to life. Sweat starting dripping down his forehead and he felt his complexion get paler, if that was even possible. It was when he felt his life be doomed to hell for the duration of the trip that he heard the muffled giggle from across the small booth.

* * *

The quiet groan that Laxus unknowingly let out was what alerted Lucy to his travel sickness. She had heard the same noise come from Natsu too many times before, just a lot louder, but still the same nonetheless. A small giggle escaped her lips without her permission, prompting the currently motion sick Dragon Slayer to look up at her, another groan filling the silent space between them.

Smiling at the man across from her, Lucy tilted her head to the side in a motion not unlike a puppy would. "Motion sickness?" she asked, earning a nod in return. Patting the spot next to her, she put the book she had starting reading sometime since getting on the train away.

"Come over here. I sometimes do this for Natsu when he gets sick. I'm not sure if it will help but it always seems to calm his stomach down so it's worth a short." A light blush lit up her cheeks which didn't escape Laxus and he got up slowly then crossed the space and sat beside Lucy. Timidly, she lifted her arms and softly pulled Laxus down until his head lay on her lap. The position she had arranged him in left him with his face towards her stomach and he raised an eyebrow that she couldn't see. The confusion he felt disappeared immediately the moment he felt fingers running through his hair, the tightening in his stomach fading and most of the nausea replaced by a sense of calm. Struggling to get into a more comfortable position, he ended up with his nose nuzzled in her shirt and his large arms wrapped around her slim waist, his legs curled up on the bench so that he could fit.

Secretly pleased that the man was letting himself get comfortable, Lucy smiled wilder and continued to run her fingers through soft blonde hair with one hand, picking up her abandoned book with the other and continued to read from where she left off.

It wasn't long before Laxus' chest was slowly rising and falling in time with his deep breaths in sleep, his mouth slightly open and expression almost completely relaxed, his face still hidden in her shirt.

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 **I apologise, I know this chapter was really short after nearly a month but I'm still a lazy shit. Hoping that's gonna change but it probably won't to be honest.**

 **On the bright side, summer holidays have just started because I live in Australia (yay aussies! ignoring that I'm technically asian) so I may upload quicker and make the chapters longer but again, probably won't. I'm trying to get a job now as well so if I do, then my free time will probably decrease. I'll do my best though. ^_^**

 **Oh, and I know that Laxus is really OOC in the end of this chapter but I just love the idea of him cuddling up to Lucy.**


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